How to Make an Herbal Oil and Salve: 

One of my favorite things about being an herbalist is when people excitedly ask me questions about herbs! I love sharing the knowledge I have of herbal medicines and I often encourage people to make their own medicines. Today I will share with you how to make an herbal oil and salve.

For our example we will use Calendula officinalis although you can use any herb of your choice . Calendula is a go-to plant for skin-care and is also known as “pot marigold” for its traditional use in soups. Here’s a fun fact, officinalis means from the officina and the officina is the monk’s apothecary. So any time you see a plant that includes officinalis in its scientific name you can be sure that it is a medicinal plant! 

I’ll teach you how to make herbal oil using the folk method. You’ll need a mason jar (at least pint sized), dried calendula and an organic oil. I most often use olive oil due to its versatility. An organic herbal olive oil can be used for both skin care and cooking. 

Using the folk method, place your dried calendula into the mason jar and then fill the jar with oil until there is 1 inch more of oil in your jar than there is plant material. If you’re following my salve recipe next, you’ll want to make sure that you have at least 1 cup of herbal oil to work with at the end of infusion (keep in mind that your herbs will soak up some of the oil so you will need to start with a bit more than 1 cup of oil during the infusion proccess). Put a lid on the jar and clearly label the jar with the type of oil, the name of the plant and the date. It is very important that you put the label on the jar, not the lid! It’s all too easy to put a lid back on the wrong jar when working with more than one medicine within your apothecary. Allow this to infuse for 2-4 weeks before straining with a fine mesh cheesecloth. Do not strain your oil until you are ready to use it, even if it's been longer than 4 weeks. When the plant material is inside the oil it is protected from spoilage but when you strain it your oil becomes more susceptible to going rancid. Waiting the full 4 weeks of infusion will produce a stronger medicine. 

To make an herbal salve you will need 1 cup of oil, ¼ cup of beeswax, a double boiler or old pots, a heat safe silicone spatula, and a jar with a lid for your salve. In your double boiler, gently heat one cup of herbal oil and add ¼ cup of beeswax to the oil. Melt the beeswax completely in the oil, stirring as needed. When everything has been melted together and you no longer see chunks of beeswax, pour the mixture into your jar for storage. This mixture will slowly become more solid until it is the ideal consistency for use as a salve. 

You can also play around with making your salves harder or softer consistency by changing the amount of beeswax you put into the oil. You can test consistency by taking a drop or two of the melted mixture out of the double boiler and letting it cool to observe the consistency then continuing to adjust the base mixture with more beeswax as desired.  

Again, be sure to label your jar not your lid with the ingredients you used to make the salve, the plant names and the date the salve was made! Using my ratio of 1 cup of herbal oil to ¼ cup of beeswax will yield about 4 oz of salve. 

Happy medicine making! As always, email me any questions you may have about herbalism or this recipe!